The Let's Play Archive

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

by Dragonatrix

Part 30: The EGG Facility (Part One)



Quite nice how our unwanted crash landing dropped us off exactly where we want to be. I guess whoever shot us down didn't plan this very well.



Obviously, we can't just take the plane and fly outta here now. It did have a gun of its own though, which... never got used. Well then.



....But just because we can't fly out doesn't mean we can't leave. We can just walk away.



First, gonna talk to Roland though.


Let's find Sera. Humanity's karma is too great for one person to bear alone...



I think dat's how we all pictured Nirvana would be. How'd it turn out like dis?

Now we can just up and leave.



Gonna head back to the Lokapala base for a few things.



....Like this guy.


: Serious business, remember that hee.
Who are you?
: Don't worry hee, bro. I'm a Lokapala, ho. I have hee-spect for Johnny, ho!



: I think it's a pearl or see-omething.
What's for sale?
: A hee-orb that popped out of my hee-hat.



We, uh, can't afford this yet. Once we can we'll grab it.

No thanks.
: Cheap assed hee-ho... Hee-how am I suppose to make any money, ho?

But speaking of stores...



Men need to be strong so they can protect the important people in their lives... Remember that.

wow thats bullshit lady



im taking your rings now and leaving




What are we playing?
This cool game I found outside the other night...
How's it work?

> This exciting portable shooter from ATLUS is simple to play, but impossible to master!



...ah shit its a shmup minigame

Seriously?
...I'm not really into games, but ok.

Cielo 'Em Up

Battle With Rare Devil



So, yes, we have a vertical scrolling shmup to deal with. I am very, very not good at shmups.

Also just a small thing you may notice in the video; aside from his quip at he start of the stage, none of Cielo's dialogue here is translated. It doesn't really need it but it just sorta feels weird.



This one doesn't start off too difficult at least, so there's that. We just cut through Machas and Hua Pos until an Omoikane turns up.



He gives us a little power up which upgrades Dyaus' normal shots so he can shoot two at once now.



Eventually Rangda'll turn up and she's our miniboss. Shoots a lot of bullets but very few get very far thanks to being able to fire Hunt stuff somehow that eats bullets and gives us more points.



And Baphomet is our stage 1 boss. Dude takes a while, but actually isn't that difficult at least.



...Stage 2 on the other hand, I don't get past the first few bits of. Because I am bad at shmups.

what you dont see in that video is the ~20 minutes it took to get this run



We'll be back to do this again later. We DO get something for beating that high score of 600,000 points.



That done, we'll run off to the park again for a moment.



This lady turns up here now. Remember that guy outside the Karma Temple at the very, very end of DDS1? Possibly not, but having agreed to his request is what makes her be here.


Are you angry that I chose to live in the city, while you remain an outsider...? Did I... do the right thing? Yes, my name is Amelia... How did you know my name? He... He said, "Please be happy?" James... ...Thank you, James.





I'm going to leave this city, and try to find happiness.

Now that we've got the Lotus Flower, we can do something with this much later to get a final reward for this.



Or we can just sell it for $40,000. Naturally doing that means we can't get the proper reward (...most of the time). Definitely gonna hold onto this for now though.



And with that, we can run back to the Laboratory Dome and finally try and rescue Sera.


Egg of the Universe



So, the EGG Installation is of course our next dungeon and its thankfully shorter than the Karma Society Tower.



The entrance hall is just a giant room with nothing in it. At the very end of it's an elevator.



This one at least leads us down to the basement, where we immediately get accosted by three dudes with a deathwish.


Heroic Battle



I feel sorry for these guys already. A bunch of Gdons that aren't in their boss incarnation from before? How simple to deal with.

Egg of the Universe



You need to get to the EGG-- that's where Sera is!



So, there's also a dead dude here. And we can loot his corpse of a Hero Ration.

There's a decent amount of items around here; some are in boxes like normal, sure, but about half are on corpses.

Speaking of!


Battle for Survival



We'll skip over Gdon because already seen everything relevant about it. Macha on the other hand got a wee bit more deadly since Manipura. Although it doesn't feel like it since it almost never gets a turn anyway.



Sati's also back from DDS1 and she's much weaker than the Ajna version. Kinda disappointingly so, even.



Sarasvati is, uh, Sarasvati. Not really a major threat and being weak to Mute means she can be shut down immediately and effortlessly.



Ose is actually kind of a rarity right now. He does bcome more common later in the dungeon but at present he just turns up as a human who needs to spend a turn to tune.

Earth Boosted Terazi will either drop him in one or leave him with like 5HP tops.



Yaksini is similar to Ose in rarity and needing to tune first. She's also simultaneously harder and easier to deal with; dies more consistently but her attacks are more of a problem. Barely but still.


Egg of the Universe



The first bit of the dungeon is wonderfully linear and also has its only large karma terminal.



Pretty quickly, we come to a round room with a door to the north and south. There's also that obviously locked door opposite us.



The door to the north just leads to a small path ending in a room with another Daisy in it.



Doubling back and taking the south door then.


Heroic Battle



Hey its another of our DDS1 bonuses. This one, of course, comes from Beelzebub.

...It does nothing for their ice weakness though so whatever.


Egg of the Universe



The guy we didn't just murder and eat immediately runs away at this point. I can't really blame him honestly!



Also we get the Skull Ring from this by prying it off Sati's fingers before murdering her horribly.



Well the Divine Ring repelled Expel so I suppose one that repels Death was to be expected.

Also that dead dude in the corner? Just had a couple Dis-Aches.



Following the dude that ran away, he's kind enough to open the door that leads further in for us.



Naturally, we will give chase and come to another elevator. The room further to the east? There's nothing in it.



Elevator takes us further down and brings with it a change of scenery. (The room to Serph's right here also has nothing of interest in it.)

That of course means...


Battle for Survival



New random encounters! Scathach's probably the hardest thing to run into down here. She hits hard, resists all our good things and even when panicked she's more inclined to still destroy us than skip a turn or give us free things.

It takes two boosted mid-tier spells to drop her so if she's paired with something with a weakness we can exploit then she's a lot easier and might not even get a turn.



Speaking of things with weaknesses, Taraka has many that we can exploit. She's not really a threat at all, which is both disappointing and yet relieving.


Egg of the Universe



Following the one path, we come to another door we can't open and...



...Another another door we can't open. This one has a 02 above it though. Hmm.



Fortunately, there is a third path here leading to two rooms. We'll take the room in front of us first.



There's a lot of uninteresting computer stuff in here, but there's also a box with a Vital Data in it. That's nice to have even if I will perpetually forget its existence.



The other room has this guy in it.


...Ohhh... You're the-- I shouldn't have run away earlier. I just... I guess I just lost my head, you know? The Director told us to cooperate, so...





Madame's soldiers moved in fast, but there must be some researchers who are still alive... You won't get too far without security cards. Ask the remaining researchers about them. ...I need to make sure I'm not caught.

Now that we've got this, I'm sure you know exactly where we can put this to use.



Just gotta run back to the door with a 01 above it and we can continue onwards in that direction. Still need a second card for the 02 one of course, which is probably over here somewhere.



...Or I'd bloody well hope so since there's another 02 door right off the bat on this side and all.

Directly behind Serph here, opposite the door, is another small computer room. This one has 3 Dis-Poisons in it.



Continuing onward, we actually have to go down a floor to come to this intersection with 3 possible paths. Being on a new floor for real...


Battle for Survival



That means we can get jumped by Taowns now too. They're identical to before but here we have a good spellcaster. A single Terazi, or comboed (Ma)terazi if there are multiple, and they all die immediately.

Egg of the Universe



The west path leads to... a small room with nothing in it. The north and east paths both lead to the same hallway, so we'll take the north path and follow that around clockwise. First room gives us these Medical Tools.



The second door leads to a small room with nothing in it. The third takes us back to the small karma terminal. The fourth... lets us get two mirrors that I immediately proceed to forget I picked up.



The fifth door is different to all the others in many ways. It's bigger, it's a different colour, it has two lights shining on it. I wonder what's inside!


Silence



Uh, that is a giant... thing encased in ice and chained up. Seems a bit excessive but damned if its not impressive.

Egg of the Universe



It's moving.



Demon data from the sunlight is normally harmless, and disperses naturally in the atmosphere. Angel strengthened that data over five years, and eventually created the demon virus.



Alright, let's grill this guy over all three things we can ask about!

Where is Sera?



Her sacrifice is necessary for the Tuners... humanity's future.
What's wrong with Heat?



We needed you guys so that Sera would obey us... That's all I know!
Where is the security card?
Huh? What card?



I don't care what you have to say.
Spare me! Please... I probably don't taste good!

Yeah, sure, whatever.



So what about you, guy?


What's behind the glass?
Th-That's Mega...nada... It's one of the terrible demons that appeared five years ago...



In fact, the Director couldn't have created the demon virus without that thing's data and the EGG.
...What happened five years ago!?
...You mean you don't know!?



Who the hell ARE you...? You have to be him... Or, are you really just an avatar?
...Where is the security card?
A-Alright. T-Take it... Just don't eat me!



See? I helped... D-Don't eat me, okay?
I don't care what you have to say.
B-B-But... You'll let me live, right?

Now with the key, we could just leave this "Meganada" thing and go continue deeper into the facility.

But we still have Roland and Argilla to talk to.




Virtual data and data from the real world are essentially the same... It says that's the reason they chose you --people of the Junkyard-- as test subjects for the virus. This isn't just science; it's bordering on philosophy.



It's amazing... There are so many myths about gods and demons. Maybe there really is another world beyond this one.
...Another world?
Just look at the Junkyard. Wouldn't it be just as easy for this world to connect to a higher one?
So, what's that big thing?
Just a second...



...Indrajit... ...You're kidding me.

Hey, so... if that thing is still alive... we should probably get out of here now. "Indrajit" literally means "Conqueror of Indra." Because he kinda sorta kicked Indra's ass.

...i think roland picked the wrong atma



On our way to the 02 door by the small terminal, figured I'd stop in and rake in our new +2 Strength bonus from it. Not as useful as it sounds right now though.



This security door is the second one we passed; the one beyond the 01 door. It leads to a small branching path.



The door dead ahead leads to a room with nothing of interest in it. The one to the left gives us a new flower.



Nothing else there, so we'll head all the way back to the other 02 door and continue past it.



This path is nice and simple despite its appearance. Taking the branch to the right first.



...Oh. Yeah, sometimes a corpse is just a corpse. Ignore that turn to the left; it leads to nothing.



The door we could see has our requisite new bullet in it. Nothing too exciting.



Heading back to the main path, following it on ahead and then taking the second branch and we get a free normal Sapphire. Meh.



Other door leads onwards, then. And this guy's both still alive and already looted!



...Of course there's an 03 door right here.


Battle for Survival



Hey, we past another locked door so tht mans we can fight Braphomets Baphomets now. They're almost the same as before - but now with a bonus Mute weakness! - which is nice.

I also just noticed that they have a giant medal tucked into their pants with a slightly altered Caduceus symbol on it. How did I never notice that before?



There's also Tan-Kis who are sort of similar to before. Except camera shy apparently.



Lastly, we have downgraded Pazuzus hanging out from now on. Scathachs are the hardest enemy to fight, but Pazuzus are the biggest bastards. Because they have Pulinpa.



...argilla what are you doing



aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


Egg of the Universe



Ahem. So, yes, Panic can now make you literally throw away money. And no, you don't get it back when you win.

And two Pazuzus are only worth about half what we lost. With the Rich Ring included.



Anyway, from the 03 door we go to the south, come to a three way intersection and then take the left (east) path which lets us get 2 Quick Datas. How nice.



South gives us nothing and west gives us another free Tiger's Eye. Nothing else down here though.



So we'll head back and go further north coming to another two way intersection. The right leads to nothing of value so we'll continue to the north.



And I'm getting deja vu from all this. Start with west this time since that's on the left again. Might as well keep this "clockwise" thing going.



This one lets us get some decent MP recovery. If I ever remember to use it.




Great timing; we were starting to get hungry.

Door to the north leads to these two clowns. I can hear their death screams already.

Heroic Battle



At least two Baphomets is technically harder than "a couple Gdons or two Sati." For all the nothing that matters. Makajam to silence 'em both and whoops they're chumped.

Egg of the Universe



That was nice and easy to get to at least...

So what's in the much more interesting and relevant gold container?



Oh it is a ring that is Actually Good.



Got this equipped and go first? Yeah, you do double damage. Just outright doubled. Really good for clearing out trash effortlessly and even slices through boss HP pretty fast... at first. Eventually you could end up dealing less than normal.

Which is why I don't bother with it for longer fights. It's really, really good right now though. I still don't bother with it though.

So, that last door in the previous room?



Ugh. Let's just go back to the 03 security door and continue onwards.



Wait, what? Password?



Did I... I don't think I missed something.




...Why don't we ask someone, bro?